Worship at Home
W/B Sunday 14 April 2024
Ruth Lewis
Call to Worship:
We have responded to God’s call to come to meet him. Lord, you welcome us all. You are what holds us all together. May we rejoice in the great privilege it is to be with you. Amen.
Hymn: StF 28
Jesus calls us here to meet him
https://youtu.be/ModYoPReYYw?si=rPI7FX5J7nHi7MrO Upper Clyde Parish church
Prayer:
Now let us offer praise to God, in every place, with every voice. Now let us join all creation in extolling God, from the depths of the sea to the farthest galaxies: Now we should thrill to rejoice in the God who loves us and calls us to him.
But…now that Easter is done and gone, rather than living in the newness you bring, we go back and do things the old way we have always done. Fortunately, God of surprise appearances and of broiled fish, you know the way out of our complicated lives, and so take us by the hand to lead us and feed us.
You call us to forgiveness so we may spend more time with those who need our love and attention…. We lift glad songs of joy, for all the blessings God has given to us. We will offer our hearts and hands in love and service to others. Thanks be to God, we are forgiven! Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father
Hymn: Now the green blade rises
Message:
What has happened? What is the “this” they were talking about? And who are “They”? Why, from the previous verses in the gospel, they are Cleopas and the other disciples and they were talking about their experiences with the assumed stranger they had met and shared food with on the road to Emmaus. They were talking about their unexpected encounter with Jesus….and just as they were doing that…back in Jerusalem, v 36 tells us Jesus himself stood among them. As they talk of Jesus he is with them. He shows them the marks of his suffering and eats a piece of fish. They felt Jesus presence and saw him, as they talked about him.
This resurrection passage reminds us that whenever we speak with others of our experiences of Jesus, then He is with us. For at those times, we then become witnesses. And it can be an everyday, sort of witness. We don’t have to go into a pulpit or stand at a street corner with a banner. I like the way in the video clip of the passage told by Phil Summers, he is in his kitchen just chatting to us, not in a church or even outdoors. It’s like an everyday conversation with friends, even if, admittedly he has a rather lovely kitchen!
So it is with us. You, today maybe at home watching this, or in an everyday place like your car, listening. The risen Jesus can be experienced when you speak of him and your relationship with him to others. Do share these times with others like Cleopas did, but remember, both here and in Emmaus Jesus ate, shared food with folk. Jesus can be experienced in low key hospitality and the ordinary moments of life. “Know that even when you are in the kitchen, our Lord moves amidst the pots and pans” or so said St Theresa of Avila. Although like the Emmaus disciples sometimes we don’t recognise Jesus when he is there. The risen Jesus is present when you are maybe at a church coffee morning or you ask someone round for a cup of tea and of course if you talk about WaH or even better, your trust in Jesus.
This hymn is about us putting our trust in God and it’s a good introduction to our prayers for others.
Hymn: Father I place into your hands
Bible Reading ; Luke 24:36-48
Prayers for Others:
Father we pray for our loved ones and friends and neighbours, for strangers in other lands and also for those we believe are our enemies.
Father we ask you to bless those people around world who are disliked and abused, exploited or oppressed, persecuted, imprisoned or forced to flee from their homeland
We ask you to bless those who serve us across the supermarket check out, or in medical situations, and those who empty our rubbish bins, those who deliver our post and parcels, and those look after our churches and this website.
We ask you to bless those we know who are undergoing treatment for cancer and other life threatening or frightening health conditions. Give them strength and hope.
God our generous Father, please do for those whom we love those things that our even best efforts can never accomplish, and please do for our enemies as you would do for our friends.
Through Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen!
Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent" is what the disciples at Emmaus had said to Jesus. Stay with us. Abide with us. He leaves them, but next he is with them again when, as in our reading, they tell the disciples in Jerusalem all about him. It is after all, what we all want, Jesus to always be with us, in life and in death. Let’s sing this lovely hymn.
Hymn: Abide with me.
Blessing:
Now it is time to have conversations where we bring words of hope and grace to all. Trust in the Spirit to give us the words we need in every moment. May God the Father, God the Risen Son and God the Holy Spirit be with you and remain with you now, and at all times.
Amen
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